Sunday, 22 July 2018
Nelspruit
There is something about the air in Nelspruit that wakes me before sunrise. Trust me, this is not the case when I am in Cape Town and have to get up for work.
I jumped out of bed, braved the cold and waited for the sun to rise. Wiaan does not share in the same routine when on vacation; he turned over and tried to get some more sleep. After I made him a cup of coffee, I could coax him into a walk on the game farm. We saw zebras about 100 meters away. This was quite an experience seeing the wild animals on foot.
After a hearty breakfast, we left for Nelspruit to buy warm clothes and a warm water bottle. We underestimated how cold it would get up North. While in Edgars, my mother phoned and asked me to stop by a school friend of her that lives close by. A few minutes later, my mother’s friend phoned and said she is waiting for us.
This is perhaps where I should come in and clear up a few questions you might have. Such as, “why didn’t you enter the Kruger on the first day?” You see, I had a beautiful plan that we were going to Blyde River Canyon on our way to the Park, therefore we had to sleep over after our flight and 3-hour drive.
Leave early the next day and spend the morning exploring the beautiful Canyon, which I have not been to before. The plans changed as my excitement grew when I realised we were an hour away from the Malelane gate. We discussed that we would enter the gate first thing in the morning and see Blyde River Canyon on the last day of our vacation on our way to the airport…
Small talk
Now that you are up to speed, I can continue. It was 11 am and with our newly bought winter warmers, we were on our way to my mother’s friend. We had coffee, a few good laughs and an hour and a half passed. We had to decline the second cup of coffee and made our way back to the shops for supplies. It was now late, but she pointed us towards Crossing Superspar, which was honestly the best Spar I have been to in forever. Inside is a cookie and treats table with an assortment you could only dream of. I grabbed a box and could not decide which ones to take, the madeleines or the lemon biscuits or all of it.
Never you mind about the time now. We had our bags a few long minutes later and headed out of Nelspruit. Well, we almost did. Except, I needed to run into a pharmacy for antihistamines. Another 20 minutes later, we were on our way to the Kruger National Park. It was now 1:45 pm.
I am not sure if you are aware of it, but the Main Gates, as well as the camp gates, close at 5:30 pm during the winter. (I will do a summarised post at the end of the trip with important facts and figures). We had to be at Letaba rest camp at 5:30 pm and we were very far from it, 360kms to be exact. Which would take us about 6 hours to get to if we had to enter at the Malelane Gate.
Another plan had to be developed and fast too. Our next best option would be to enter at Phalaborwa’s Main Gate. We took the shortest route along the R40, through Hazyview, Hoedspruit and at last the R71 towards Phalaborwa Gate. I would not recommend this route to anyone, purely because it might not be the safest. After a very stressful 2 and a half hours we reached the Main Gate.
The Kruger
We hopped out to sign and have a quick bathroom break before the last stretch. A friendly woman greeted us at the counter. She scanned the papers and said we had 1 hour to reach the camp (the Kruger website advises one and a half). She then said the following; “If you see Sir Lion, don’t stop, don’t take photos, just continue on driving.” I thought to myself Murphy’s Law will have his way, but secretly I was okay with it.
And so the magic began. We saw elephants basking in the golden hour, a dagga boy (buffalo) and antelopes. Of course, we stopped for a few snaps, but just the thought of being inside the park was good enough.
For those wondering “dagga boy” is a term used to describe old buffalo bulls forced out of their herd.
We reached the camp gate with a minute to spare at exactly 5:29 pm. Signed in and lit a magnificent fire. Check in next week to read about our night drive adventure.